Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
My prostate lifeline
Grandad alive thanks to cancer drug a decade after being given 2 years to live
A GRANDAD told he would be dead from cancer in two years has revealed how he is still going strong a decade later thanks to a new drug and healthy living.
Gary Hooker, 65, is one of the longest-surviving patients in the world treated with a breakthrough pill for advanced prostate cancer.
The former school caretaker was enrolled on a clinical trial for enzalutamide, which stops testosterone fuelling the tumours’ growth.
Fitness fan Gary said it “gave me my life back” and he has since taken early retirement, celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary, and seen three grandsons arrive.
He now mentors others on how the right medication and a positive outlook can extend their lives.
Gary said: “I learned to live with my cancer. I was not afraid of it.
“I would say to anyone diagnosed, ‘Carry on living your life’.
“I felt like me and the cancer respected each other. It knew I wasn’t going to give in.” Gary, a
ABOUT 50,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the UK – more than 130 a day.
Around 12,000 men die annually from the disease and one in eight can expect to get it in their lifetime. It usually affects men over 50.
Symptoms do not usually appear until the prostate is large enough to cross-country runner who had also completed two London Marathons, fell ill with pneumonia in 2011.
A scan showed shadows on his lungs and he was “devastated” to learn he had advanced Stage 4 prostate cancer, which had spread there and to his lymph nodes and bones.
Gary said: “When the registrar told me they thought I had 18 months to two years, he said, ‘There’s not a lot we can do about it’.
“My head was spinning. I was thinking how many more Christmases am I going to see.”
Chemotherapy was ruled out as his cancer was too widespread but affect the tube that carries urine from the bladder. Signs can include an increased need to urinate, particularly at night. a feeling that the bladder has not fully emptied and needing to urinate suddenly.
For men with less advanced cancer he was told by Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Trust about the drug trial.
He initially refused, but by the end of 2011 had changed his mind.
Gary, of Grove Park, South East London, also kept going to the gym with his four children, ate healthily and bought a dog for daily walks.
Meanwhile the enzalutamide pills had an immediate effect and his cancer has barely progressed since.
He said: “I knew straight away something was different... I went from thinking ‘how long have I got left’ to booking holidays.”
Gary, who ran in the Oncology Olympics in 2018, added: “I might be here in two years, I might not, but I’m going to carry on living my life.”
The drug is temporarily being offered to some men with advanced prostate cancer, a move Prostate Cancer UK wants made permanent.
And staff at Guy’s Hospital in London have nominated Gary as a “healthcare hero” at the international WEGO Health Awards.
Nurse Fee Cahill said: “You couldn’t meet a nicer man and it’s been my privilege to look after him.” treatment is not always immediately necessary and doctors may advise “active surveillance”.
Possible treatments include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy and surgically removing the prostate gland.
Many of these can incur side effects such as erectile dysfunction.